Rebellious officials bow their heads

Ye Liuzhou coughed violently because of his actions, frowned tightly, and covered his mouth with his hand, he tried his best to suppress the coughing, his chest trembled slightly, and he let out a difficult and drawn-out breathing sound.

Xu Yan stared at him with complicated eyes, and let go of his hand little by little.

The man lay back on the soft bedding, his shortness of breath gradually calmed down.

The two fell into a long silence, as if there was an invisible wall separating them.

Xu Yan was quiet for a moment, then turned around and walked out, called the servant and told him to bring a bucket of hot water.

The boy responded and went down to prepare.

The figure of Xu Yan stood in front of the carved door pavilion, did not leave, looked sideways at the man inside the curtain, pondered for a moment, recalled the scene of rescuing Ye Liuzhou from the sea of ​​fire just now, and felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity in his heart .

He suddenly asked, "Why did you call me Ji Liu just now?"

When Ye Liuzhou heard this sentence suddenly, his face showed unconcealable surprise, and then he lowered his head, his long hair hanging down covered his expression, "It was just a casual call."

Xu Yan walked out.

The figure Ye Liuzhou was looking at left his field of vision, and quickly climbed from the bed to the window pavilion. Through the thin bamboo strip paper, Xu Yan's blurry back disappeared into the corridor.

He sat there for a while, then heard a soft sound, turned his head, the boy put down the barrel and retreated, and slammed it into the door cabinet.

Ye Liuzhou pulled lightly, and his tattered clothes fell to the ground. He stepped off the bed barefoot, stepped on the cold floor, propped his hands on the wall of the barrel, bent slightly, and looked at the reflection in the water.

Dragon patterns wrapped around his chest and shoulders.

After a while, a weary sigh sounded in the room.

After Ye Liuzhou washed off the dust from his body, he put on his wet long hair and a snow-white robe, stepped on clogs to the courtyard, and sat down directly on the wooden porch.

Across the colorful flowers and plants all over the floor, Xu Yan sat in the gazebo, holding a pen in his slender fingers with well-defined joints, and holding the oil-paper umbrella in one hand, with a focused and slightly contemplative expression, and he did not write for a long time, as if he was thinking about what kind of pattern to draw .

Hearing the movement, he raised his eyes and looked at Ye Liuzhou.

The two looked at each other, but did not speak, the breeze brought up the fine petals, and rolled them from the gazebo to the eaves.

There was another sound of footsteps coming from the other end, Jing Yuan walked up to him with a bamboo hat on his back, and said softly: "I'm going back to Yu Shui."

Ye Liuzhou was startled for a moment, but then he understood. He glanced at Xu Yan who had turned his attention back to the oiled paper umbrella, and stood up to signal the boy to follow him.

The two talked while walking forward, Ye Liuzhou said: "Thank you for your action this time, you can bring back the gold and silver treasures that Yuan's house has counted back to Dingjian Villa."

The young man pursed his lips, and looked at the end of the corridor with his dark eyes, "I didn't come to Lingbei for this reason."

"Because of the woman in the portrait that kept you silent?" he asked.

The obscure slanted covering of bamboo shadows presses against the black eaves, blocking most of the light at the end of the corridor, a lush forest and deep bamboo.

Jing Yuan came in front of the man, stopped in his tracks, then meticulously knelt down on one knee with an attitude never seen before, bent his back deeply, lowered his head respectfully, and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty."

The casual expression on Ye Liuzhou's face gradually subsided.

"14 years ago, a woman was hunted down by Beiluo's secret guards. After being rescued by the old villa owner, she lived in Dingjian Villa for a period of time and left a portrait with a face very similar to yours." Jing Yuan said.

"Following the villa came a man with a group of guards, and we found out that the woman's identity is unusual. She is your mother, Empress Huijin, and the man who came to look for her was the late Emperor Zhaode. "

Ye Liuzhou had guessed the identity of the woman who resembled him a long time ago, and what really surprised him was that Emperor Zhaode would also appear. He was stunned for a moment, and he said: "14 years ago, it was the time when Beiluo was rampant. Why did you leave the capital and go to Yushui?"

"I heard that I came here to find someone." The young man thought about it, "I came here to find a beggar..."

"Stop talking." Ye Liuzhou interrupted him with a trace of panic.

Jing Yuan raised his head in confusion, but found that the other party's face had become as pale as paper, and his eyes were empty, as if he was caught in a mess of thoughts, and seemed to have discovered some kind of bloody truth, and murmured blankly: "I know she Who are you looking for..."

"Your Majesty?" Seeing that he was struck by lightning, the young man was almost tottering. He stood up and tried to help him, but the other party shook off his hand, and coughed heavily while holding on to the pillar.

The man bent down slightly, his back was thin and fragile, as if blowing away, the sound was intermittent, and he was about to cough up blood almost in the next moment.

Jing Yuan froze for a while, stretched out his hand to smooth the air for him, and handed him the cowhide water bag hanging on his waist.

Ye Liuzhou took it, raised his head and took a sip before recovering. His cough gradually subsided. He waved to Jing Yuan, "It doesn't matter. What happens after that?"

The boy knelt down on one knee again, "Your Majesty."

"There's no need to be too polite. Dazhao has never been a more unqualified emperor than me in more than a hundred years. You should just call me by my name as before." Ye Liuzhou said.

Jing Yuan didn't get up, and the usually taciturn boy spoke in an orderly manner at this moment: "After that, Dingjian Villa gained a foothold in the Jianghu with the help of the former emperor, and became the No. 1 school of Yushui in just a few years. In return, the first emperor brought Empress Huijin and gave an order before leaving the villa. He knew that Yuan Xuanfeng had disobedience, and if he made any changes, he would let me wipe out the rebellious party silently."

"Just like His Majesty, in order not to cause mutiny in the capital's battalion, we will use the three martial arts competitions to find a chance to get rid of Yuan Xuanfeng at the right time. Before this, I was ordered to act cautiously, so I didn't make it clear to Your Majesty in time. , I hope to forgive you.”

Ye Liuzhou looked at him, frowned and said, "I see. You got up, do you really want to talk to me like this?"

Jing Yuan stood up, but his expression changed slightly.

Ye Liuzhou sensed something was wrong, and followed his gaze, only to see Xu Yan standing at the other end of the corridor.

The other party shifted his gaze from Jing Yuan to him, turned and left without saying a word.

Ye Liuzhou didn't care about the young man any longer, and quickly chased after him on clogs. There was a clattering sound from the corridor, and he grabbed Xu Yan's arm, "Xu Yan—did you hear something?"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he knew that he was flustered for a moment and said such words unexpectedly, but it was hard to stop.

Xu Yan stopped abruptly and looked back at him with extremely sharp eyes, "Do you think I shouldn't have heard the conversation between you?"

He smiled slightly self-deprecatingly: "—don't worry, I didn't hear anything."

Ye Liuzhou shook his head, "That's not the case..."

"Then tell me, why did the coir raincoat kneel down and salute you?"

Ye Liuzhou looked at him, speechless.

Xu Yan gritted his teeth and asked word by word: "—Who are you?"

Ye Liuzhou still couldn't answer, Xu Yan and him were in a stalemate for a moment, then he lowered his arm to break away from his pull, and walked away.

Ye Liuzhou stood there with a headache for a while, then stretched out his hands and scratched his hair randomly, making a frantic and depressed noise.

He turned his head to look at the culprit, Jing Yuan, and with a "tsk", kicked off the wooden clogs, barefoot aggressively, and continued to chase after Xu Yanyuan's back.

However, Xu Yan was already sitting in the main hall drinking tea, and the room was full of people. When they saw him stepping over the threshold, everyone turned their eyes in unison.

Ye Liuzhou couldn't help but froze, and looked down at himself. His clothes were disheveled, his hair was disheveled, and he didn't even have any shoes.

Although the scene was very weird, he didn't have the slightest intention of retreating, and slowly stepped in with the other foot, then sat down next to Xu Yan, pretended to hold a cup of tea, and coughed.

Xu Yan didn't expect him to catch up to the front hall. He just took a sip of tea in his mouth, and he didn't know whether he was spouting or swallowing.

After a pause, he swallowed his tea and winked at the servant next to him.

The little servant understood, and quickly took out a pair of animal-patterned shoes, and put them in front of Ye Liuzhou.

When the man put on his shoes, tied up his hair with a piece of cloth, put his arms on the table, and looked at the people in front of him with his cheeks propped up, a group of people in the hall who looked like peasants with different expressions moved away. look.

A woman came forward with the little girl in her arms, and said, "Quickly kowtow to your savior."

The little girl looked to be about ten years old, with delicate features, and she came forward timidly, but Xu Yan was about to kneel down when she said, "No need."

The little girl looked back at the woman in a daze, and the woman bowed her body and said sincerely, "Thank you for saving me and my daughter, if you hadn't killed that vicious bandit, we would have died long ago."

Another middle-aged man fell to his knees behind him, "Young Master saved our family twice, and we are reborn with kindness. We are willing to be cows and horses to repay Young Master!"

"It's just a matter of time, no need to thank you." Xu Yandao, "But where did the two times come from?"

"Enggong can't remember. Before, Zhuo Jing was a servant girl in General Yuan's mansion. He accidentally spilled tea and was almost beaten to death by Cao Qihan. Fortunately, the young master interceded, and we were only expelled from the mansion, and we were not beaten by their gang of villains. Die." The woman said.

Xu Yan remembered that there was such an unintentional act, nodded, put down the teacup, stood up and said to the villagers in the house: "I know why you came here, your village was burned down by bandits, I will arrange for someone to let you settle down in the city first."

There was a burst of grateful thanks in the room, and there were villagers who wanted to kneel and kowtow to him, Xu Yan naturally would not accept the gift, glanced at Ye Liuzhou, walked through the crowd to the door, did not take a step, suddenly a man from the manor The attendant hurriedly ran over and said, "Report, Young Master, there is a bandit outside the city who claims to ask you to get back the younger brother of their family!"

"En." Xu Yan was not surprised, and responded, "It's useless to lock him up in the mansion, drag him out of the woodshed, and follow me outside the city."

A crowd of dark villagers followed him, and Ye Liuzhou was also going with them, when he suddenly saw a head protruding from the door, Jing Fuling waved to him, saying, "Brother and I are going back to Yushui."

"I'll see you off." Ye Liuzhou said.

The two walked around the corridor, Jing Fuling stretched her waist, yawned and said, "We're leaving now, how fast. Speaking of which, the senior brother has drawn up so many plans, but none of them have been dispatched." Unexpectedly, it was Yuan Xuanfeng who we eradicated together with the Wolf Scout Cavalry."

"By the way, Yuan Xuanfeng was locked up in the mansion and no one interrogated him yet, what about Pang Qing?" Ye Liuzhou asked.

"It's clearing up the capital's battalion." Jing Fuling laughed, "You don't know? Xu Yan didn't tell you."

Ye Liuzhou sighed helplessly.

"When are you going to tell him?" She said with a smile, "Your Majesty?"

Ye Liuzhou thought that once Xu Yan knew his identity, the consequences would be extremely painful.

The two were talking, and when they arrived at the back door of Yuan Mansion, Jing Yuan was already waiting beside the horse, just like the first time they met, the young man was dressed in coir raincoat, with a long sword hanging from his waist, revealing a sharp and cold edge.

Jing Fuling retreated to the side to adjust the saddle, and told the two of them to say goodbye.

Ye Liuzhou smiled slightly at the young man: "This is back to Jianghu, see you by fate."

The young man was silent for a while, then suddenly stretched out a hand towards him, and said earnestly: "I have heard about you in court, do you need me to get rid of Ji's family for you?"

Ye Liuzhou looked down at his hands, smiled lightly, and said: "You are from the Jianghu, holding a Chuan sword, the young owner of Dingjian Villa, after today, don't interfere with the court affairs."